At the Lahey Clinic, a Tufts University Medical School teaching hospital, a randomized controlled study by Merrie Watters, RN, MSN, David Schoetz, MD, FACS, past Chief of Colorectal Surgery and Judith Feldman, MD, Senior Internist, Dept. of General Medicine, with 56 patients having colorectal surgery showed that patients using Peggy Huddleston’s book, Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster, Relaxation tape and a one-hour workshop had significantly less anxiety before surgery,were discharged from the hospital 1.6 days sooner than those in the control group, resulting in a cost-savings of $3,200 per patient. By the second day at home after discharge, patients using Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster used 60% less pain medication, had significantly less irritability, insomnia, nightmares, loss of appetite and had a significant increase in patient satisfaction compared to the control group.

A randomized controlled study with 44 patients having total knee-joint replacement at the New England Baptist Hospital, a Tufts University Medical School teaching hospital, documented that patients using the book, Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster, the Relaxation tape and one-hour workshop had significantly less anxiety before surgery and were discharged from the hospital 1.3 days sooner than the control group. Benjamin E. Bierbaum, MD, former Chief of Orthopedic Surgery was a principal investigator.

At the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard Medical School teaching Hospital, a study with 23 hospitalized patients not having surgery documented that patients using Peggy Huddleston’s Relaxation tape twice a day for 20-minutes for two days had a reduction in anxiety, used less medication for anxiety and a significant improvement in heart rate variability. Russell S. Phillips, MD, Chief of Medicine was a co-investigator. The findings were published in Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, March 2007.

A meta-analysis of 191 studies with 8,600 patients showed that patients who prepared for surgery had less blood loss, used less pain medication, fewer complications and a shorter length of stay.